


Old Age Should Burn

by Ash_Cassidy97



Series: This is Your Heart [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Duty, Hermit Luke, Jedi Code, PTSD, implied PTSD, luke is a little shit, that is the whole fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-20 23:59:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6030664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ash_Cassidy97/pseuds/Ash_Cassidy97
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He waited at the top of the hill.</p>
<p>Rey didn’t bother to stop and question the Jedi’s decision to fucking wait at the top of the fucking hill. The. Very. Fucking. Top.</p>
<p>Determination is a tenet of the Jedi Way.</p>
<p>(Luke Skywalker defined that as being a tenacious little shit until he wasn’t).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Old Age Should Burn

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Google docs](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Google+docs).



He waited at the top of the hill.

 

Rey didn’t bother to stop and question the Jedi’s decision to fucking wait at the top of the fucking hill. The. Very. Fucking. Top.

 

Determination is a tenet of the Jedi Way.

 

(Luke Skywalker defined that as being a tenacious little shit until he wasn’t).

 

At least, that’s what Luke told himself when he felt the ship approach and left to wait at the very top of the hill. His living quarters were the first door that Rey had approached, exactly fifty feet from the _Millennium Falcon_.

 

Luke Skywalker had already fought a war. He wouldn’t fight another. He had already fought battles. He wouldn’t lose another. Call him passive aggressive as shit, see if he cares.

 

Yet, this girl had come to his island and tried to hand him his old saber.

 

He didn’t pick it up.

 

He wouldn’t go along with another battle, not again. He had lost so much after following Old Ben (he had gained so much).

 

He had in one way, killed his own nephew (Leia would’ve slapped him upside the head-Ben made his own decisions). He had a little bit more sympathy for Old Ben, when time had come a-knocking. His mercies had come back to haunt him after all. Karma.

 

Fail once. Sometimes you get a second chance to fail better.

 

“I can’t teach you,” Luke said slowly, without emotion.

 

And Rey just stood there. Her family had left her. She grew up in the desert and it’s the same story all over, isn’t it? She smelled the same way he had. The way one smells after everything else has left and all that’s left is dust. There is no guilt left, no indecision. This is what needs to be done, this is your own heart. Take it. Breathe it in. That’s the Jedi way.

 

Luke Skywalker was a passive little shit but he still had duty to look forward to.

 

He had fallen in with Old Ben and Han Solo. He hadn’t been looking for trouble (bullshit). He had wanted a grand adventure and now he just wanted peace.

 

Leia Skywalker had grown up with another war. It’s safe to say that she grew up among soldiers and a knowledge that if she was the only one to stand up, than so be it. She would die before the war she fought now was over. Luke knew he would as well.

 

Truth is another tenet of the Jedi.

 

And this girl, who smelled like danger and frayed wires and sandstorms, stood in front of him. She was small, dirty from the latest battle, and not faithful that her efforts would pay back. The _Millennium Falcon_ lay below and she offered another war to be won. She did not offer it kindly, with a smile. She did not offer it falsely. This girl had already lost people.

 

She was not the same as an innocent farm boy. Stop painting parallels.

 

(Stop thinking moisture farms and start thinking old war ships)

 

Han Solo was dead.

 

Repeated mistake.

 

Luke, who had successfully blocked out the Force for so long, had felt his own sister’s grief. You can’t live like a hermit for all your life. And his sister was officially done with her brother’s bullshit.

 

“You’re the only one,” Rey shot back. He was not her first action. Her first action had been to stand next to General Organa, but Leia would not allow herself to be another sanctuary when there was a better place to turn to.

 

Leia’s first action was to rest and then to gather up her soldiers. Jedi are not soldiers. They are not the battleguard. They are peacekeepers and Leia had given up on peace. Her son was a bad man and Rey was not ready to kill him (Leia was ready for him to die-stop painting her as a gentle mother). Leia had a thousand lives counting on her actions and her son was dead. This was not the time for peace.

 

“Ben Organa was my last apprentice. You know him as Kylo Ren. I would do us both a great disservice if I taught you.”

 

“Yes, but there’s nobody else.”

 

“Fine,” Luke said at last. “But it will be hard. Be sure that you want to learn.”

 

“I do,” Rey said. Luke still didn’t take the lightsaber.

 

“Keep it until you make your own.”

 

This girl was so hopeful. Luke could taste the pain and regret in her soul, but she didn’t stop and ponder her fate. She tracked down an old hermit and asked him/told him to teach her. And it stung of old memories, old debts.

 

She was a scavenger, not a farm boy who had a family. She was used to making bargains with devils. The only thing they shared was the Sith, the Force, and a love of water. In some ways, she missed the sand. On his darkest days, he might as well.

 

Stop drawing parallels. This is your duty. This is your cannon now.

 

He was going to die soon.

 

The best he could do was to keep some of the Jedi Way alive.

 

This is not grand gestures. This is duty. You know it. You know your own heart. Follow it.

 

He did not teach her on a tiny island with more water than she could’ve dreamed of. There was a war on (there was always a war on) but it was time to come home. He slipped onto the _Millennium Falcon_ and paused for a great moment. It looked like a giant rust bucket and he couldn’t help but snort. Han would’ve kicked his ass for suggesting such a thing. Han was dead and Chewie blocked Luke’s path, howling at him.

 

“I’m sorry, Chewbaka.”

 

“Master?” Luke nearly shuddered at Rey’s tone.

 

“Doesn’t matter.” Chewie took another look at the old man and stepped aside. Ben had been his godson. Obi-Wan Kenobi had been his friend.

 

They had been young kids out on an adventure. And now were viewed as old legends. Stars, what had he done to deserve the respect in Rey’s eyes?

 

He kept silent, leaning behind Rey as she took off. Chewie was in the co-pilot seat.

 

Rey was a pilot and a friend of Chewbacca, but she was no Han Solo. Luke was a Jedi Master, reluctant to confront his apprentice, but he is no Obi-Wan.

 

They are children of the past but they are not the past.

 

This is the duty of the Force. Let it surround you.

  
Old age should burn anew the soul.

**Author's Note:**

> Google docs programmers are now my favorite people. It tried to correct Old Ben to Obi Wan. I just-this is now dedicated to those motherfuckers. It missed it the first few times but then it caught on. Well, you have to type “Old Ben and Han . . .” for it to catch on. Apparently A03 does it as well, like omg the Internet.
> 
> I cried writing Leia. I get mad about how the cannon wrote her, like fuck that shit. She was all for killing her dad.


End file.
